Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Eliz. Warren Gets It Right On Credit Score Bullies

This blog was published in Delaware Liberal on December 18

I read with interest that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is submitting
legislation to regulate and rein in consumer credit scoring companies on
their abuse of our citizens. This warms my populist heart. It mainly
aims at employer's use of this unreliable and often inaccurate
information but at least it is a start for us consumers/job applicants.
When
I first retired, I decided I'd finally have the time to check out my
credit reports and make sure they were in order. I'd had no particular
problem with getting credit having done some modest real estate
investing requiring loans. Also, I had then a friendly community banker
who gave me a heads up on my credit reports. I noticed then an
erroneous item on a mortgage I'd had years earlier and decided to check
further, though it seemed not to impede my qualifying for more current
loans.
To my amazement, these companies, Experian, TransUnion and
Equifax had attained enormous power over consumers beyond credit and
bank loans; employers were using their data on a massive scale to check
out job applicants for "character flaws" and risk issues.
As I
got into the process I learned the power these bureaus hold over those
persons on whom they report. They claim no responsibility for accuracy,
fading the heat back to the source of the transaction information they
receive from their information sources on you and offer little or no
help in correcting inaccurate information send to them by retail stores,
credit card companies, auto and home loan lenders. Further, it is on
you, not them, to go back to the original source for corrections or
modification of their reports to the bureaus. But, their accuracy is
taken for granted by employers it seems.
In my case, I had two
issues to "clean up"; an erroneously reported late payment on a mortgage
I'd had 15 years earlier and long since paid off and an non-existent
late payment on a credit card account of about the same vintage.
Net,
net, it took months, about 6 in total, to address these error laden
reports and with no help from the bureaus. I had to go back to the
sources, the mortgage company and credit card company, via snail mail at
their demand, to provide challenging and correcting information. Back
and forth with endless exchanges until they acknowledged their errors
and then documented their errors back to the three bureaus. Now imagine
if I was having to do this in conjunction with a job application or
potential employer? 6 months? I'd be blown out of the water on the job
before the correct information was finally documented in the credit
reports read by the employers.
The fact is that these bureaus are
data base managers of information provided by credit and money lenders
and your information depends, in part, on the accuracy of the data entry
staffer with the bureau as well as the accuracy of the lenders/credit
issuers in their data entry and reporting. And you have no power over
either. But your job or loan hangs in balance based on their accuracy
or correct reporting. And they, the sources and the bureaus won't help
you correct the information or explain the mitigating circumstances.
You're all on your own here and you'd damned well better have the time,
persistence and energy to root out the errors and with some luck and
minimal cooperation from them, get the record corrected. Often, the
result is just permission to write and publish on their reports a brief
statement from you on the mitigating circumstances, not a full
retraction, deletion of erroneous information or complete correction of
the record. At least, not unless you're in a position to hire an
attorney.
So, thank you Senator Warren for standing up for the
little guy or gal. And, Senators Coons and Carper, are you on board
with justice for consumers in this case? Will you sign on? Why aren't
you co-sponsors?

About Me

Moved to Wilmington, Delaware in mid-2013. Resided in Houston, Texas for 45 years. A widower, married Julie Jackson in 2007. Retired as a hospital marketing consultant in 2001.Have been a Democratic Party political activist for most of my adult life, organizing and mobilizing for the Party and its candidates. Consider myself a progressive populist. Early career included running communications for 35 campaigns. Have formed and led committees dealing with voter mobilization and precinct organizing, counter voter suppression and strategy.Co-founded the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. Have served on the Texas Democratic Party Platform Committee numerous times. Also an active organizer for the anti-war movement since Vietnam and was active in the civil rights movement.